These are the inspirational words of Trenell Walker, a Sherman, Texas man who was paralyzed in a football game 15 years ago and now wants to help others with spinal cord injuries, according to 12 News KXII TV.

Living with paralysis is only the beginning, not the end for one Texoma resident.

Trenell Walker, a Texas resident living with paralysis, wants to help others with spinal cord injuries. (Source: The Texas Council For Developmental Disabilities)

In 1995, Walker was playing football, after attempting a routine tackle, he ended up on his left side, incapable of moving.  He had sustained a major spinal cord injury that left him as he is today — quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down.

“I remember it perfectly, going for the tackle, the next thing I know, I’m laying on my left side not able to move,” reminisced Walker about his personal history.  ”I went through bargaining with god and the devil and depression for three years.”

But for Walker, it was more important to focus on living with paralysis rather than dwelling on the past and giving up on life, dreams, and goals altogether.  After earning his master’s degree, Walker decided to market himself as a resource for others dealing with the aftermath of being diagnosed with a severe spinal cord injury, offering counseling to those who fear they the chance of recovery show itself.

“Initially they’re captivated by the chair but once I open my mouth to speak and then let them know whats on the inside, I’m told they don’t even see what’s on the outside any more,” offers Walker of the people he encounters every day in his small Texas hometown.

There is more that Walker wants to do to help others in physical conditions similar to his own, which is why he plans to create a support group for survivors of spinal cord injuries and call it “Fly High With SCI.”

“Seeing the ray of hope in their eyes and giving hope to the hopeless – that’s my passion,”  said Walker, going on to explain that if your mind can conceive it, then you can achieve it.

If you or someone else you know would like to join this support group, contact Trenell Walker by phone – 903-532-5656 – or email – twalker@angelsofcare.com for more information.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and suffered a spinal cord injury, we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following the accident at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego paralysis attorney. We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.

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There’s very little that Kristina Ripatti-Pearce doesn’t do.  Ripatti-Pearce is a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who is paralyzed but has just completed Race Across America, the longest transcontinental bike race in the United States, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Paralyzed LAPD officer completes 3,000 mile race from Oceanside to Annapolis.

Kristina Ripatti-Pearce trains for the 2010 Race Across America, the longest-running cross-country bicycle race in the United States. She is a former Los Angeles police officer who was shot and paralyzed in 2006. (Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News)

As was first reported by Paralysis Accident Lawyers, Ripatti-Pearce, 37, is a paraplegic ex-LAPD officer who was paralyzed from the chest down during a shoot out in 2006.  Despite the odds, Ripatti-Pearce has been training in a number of sports and has dedicated her life to not being reduced to the limitations of her paralysis.

On June 21, 2010 Ripatti-Pearce finished what is considered to be one of the hardest and most endurance testing races in the world: Race Across America.  As captain of her bicycle relay team, Ripatti-Pearce used a hand-propelled bicycle to travel from Oceanside to Annapolis, a trek that is 30 percent longer than the Tour de France.  Each day, cyclists cover close to 500 miles, eventually passing through 14 states.

“I was riding to show anything is possible with hard work and dedication,” said Ripatti-Pearce, who, along with her husband and current LAPD officer, Tim Pearce, were asked to join the team of endurance cyclist Mark Burson.

The team consisted of Ripatti-Pearce and three able-bodied bikers, all looking to raise money for a nonprofit organization called Operation Progress.  Their goal is to lower the number of violent gang-related crimes in South Los Angeles.  Operation Progress was started by LAPD officers, and even though she might not be an active member of the force, Ripatti-Pearce still takes pride in the fact that she put her life on the line so others could be safe.

Our firm congratulates Ripatti-Pearce, her husband, and their team on this amazing accomplishment.  We look forward to seeing what other goals she can achieve while overcoming the challenges of living with paralysis.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and suffered a spinal cord injury, we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following the accident at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego spinal cord injury attorney.  We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.

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According to Philly Burbs, this leaves an interesting question:  can men with spinal cord injuries find love, produce offspring, and start a family?  The answer is “yes” and the numbers might be higher than you would imagine.

The majority of spinal cord injuries happen to men, right in their reproductive prime.

The study says that most men who experienced a spinal cord injury were between the ages of 16 and 40, unmarried, and in the right phase of their life to produce children.  But as Glen Dick would tell you, finding a girl to date, let alone to marry, seems like a wild dream if you’re paraplegic.

Glen was paralyzed in an accident when he was 25-years-old.  His neck was broken after getting pulled into shallow water by a friend.  He has been in a wheelchair ever since the accident caused his spinal cord injury in 1995.  Glen’s never imaged that ten years later he’d end up meeting the woman of his dreams and making her his wife.

That woman was Monica, who shared Glen’s dream of creating a family of their own, but was worried about two things after they married.  One, Monica was almost 40 and most women’s fertility declines after they reach 30.  Two, there was Glen’s spinal cord injury, which has a history of creating erectile and ejaculatory dysfunction, as well as inactive sperm.

Fertility experts reassured the couple that men with paralysis do conceive children on their own, using the method of in vitro fertilization (IVF).  However, this is a very expensive process and can be a financial strain for families trying to deal with the cost of living with a spinal cord injury already.  This technique — artificially inseminating women with their partner’s semen sample — has been used for decades, but it is an often long, emotional process that has no guarantee of working.

This is because IVF requires a few hundred thousand to one million active sperm in order to fertilize a female egg, a number that is usually hard for men with spinal cord injuries to achieve.  However a new form of IVF has “leveled the playing field” for men with these problems.  Now, physicians can extract sperm from a man’s testicles and inject a single sperm directly into a woman’s egg in order to fertilize it.

Glen and Monica went through all of this.  Seven failed inseminations.  Two failed in vitro fertilization attempts.  Two years of tries and fails.  It was not until their 10th shot — using the new IVF treatment — that Monica would get pregnant with Glen’s child.

On December 4, 2009, the couple welcomed their daughter Elaina into the world and their family.  They know it is a rough road ahead — raising a family is not easy, especially when one parent is confined to a wheelchair — but if Glen and Monica could beat the odds in getting pregnant, chances are they feel fairly confident about building a solid future of their children and their family.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and suffered a spinal cord injury, we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following the accident at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego spinal cord injury lawyer.  We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.

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Robert Gullickson, 44, was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident back in 1986, but his outlook for recovery and life in general remains as positive as ever.  He is living with paralysis the best way he knows how — by having fun.

One paralyzed veteran is trying to set a speed record in his rocket-propelled wheelchair.

For a September 5 event, Gullickson is looking to race at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour in a rocket equipped wheelchair at the 22nd Annual Coca-Cola Muscle Car Shootout held at Brainerd International Raceway.  The goal: getting put down in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“Why not be happy?” questions Gullickson.  ”Happy people live longer, and there’s nothing to be sad about.  People are worse off than me big time.  I get to open my eyes every morning and look at stuff, breathe and smell the flowers.  And every day is just as good as the one before.”

A veteran of the Navy, Gullickson was in San Diego for his assignment on the U.S.S. Frederick when he was involved in an auto accident on a motorcycle and broke his T2 vertebrae when a piece of lumber went through his right armpit and into his back.

Gullickson had to undergo spinal cord treatments for five months in a local hospital before moving to a V.A. hospital in Seattle for two more months of rehabilitation.  The spinal cord injury left Gullickson as a paraplegic, but not without goals and a drive to reach those goals.  The vet eventually made his way back to his hometown of Forest Lake in 1991 and that’s when life got interesting.

He always loved automobiles, but he was never great at sports or athletics.  Then, in 1999, he began training for a nationwide sporting competition designed for those athletes confined to wheelchairs and known as the National Veterans Military Games.  He continued to compete in the games throughout the next few years, taking home medals in the javelin and bench press several times.

It was earlier this year, however, that Gullickson gave into his need for speed, setting his sights on a downhill wheelchair race.  The man who was going to design his wheelchair was Ky “The Rocket Man” Michaelson, an engineer that had already built a prototype chair for his own amusement.  With Gullickson’s chair, Michaelson added a lawnmower seat, mirrors, head and taillights along with five-point racing harness to ensure it was race ready.

“Basically, a steam engine or rocket shoots super-heated steam out the back with 500 pounds of thrust,” Gullickson described his vehicle.  The speed demon will also suit up in protective body armor for his race because he does not want to get another personal injury while competing this fall.

“My goal is to do whatever speed I can do safely,” said Gullickson and our firm backs him up in the safety department 100 percent.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a paralyzing accident at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego paralysis attorney.

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At the University of Calgary, Anthony Russell and a colleague from the United States have discovered that gecko lizards might be able to aid in finding a cure for paralysis, according to the Edmonton Journal.

A gecko can sell you car accident insurance…and maybe even cure your spinal cord injury.

Geckos might be the key to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. (Source: Edmonton Journal)

“Something in the tail is saying to the tail, ‘Lets use this muscle to move a lot, then take a break, then move again,’” Russell said in regards to his study, which has found that the severed tail of the gecko can move on its own — jumping, turning, lunging — without receiving signals from the brain.

Could humans regain movement in a similar fashion if they are paraplegic or quadriplegic?  Russell’s team has made the correlation between physical movements in gecko tails and the ones experienced by those living with paralysis.  Once they’re removed from the body, gecko tails can still make complex movements two minutes after separation.  Rhythmic movements may usually occur 30 minutes after detachment takes place.

The team recognizes that there are many things that might explain why a gecko’s tail moves after being severed.  Temperature, pressure, and environmental factors could influence the movement of the tail in certain ways, but what’s most promising is the fact that human spinal cords and gecko tails have very similar biological components.

Russell’s theory: if the tail of a gecko, once removed from the body, does not need a signal from the brain to move, perhaps humans do not require it either.  Regardless if their hypothesis is correct or not, the scientists agree that this study can be used as a vehicle for researching ways the nerves and muscles in the body can produce complex movements without the assistance of the brain.

Our personal injury law firm hopes that one day a cure to spinal cord injuries is discovered.  Until then, we’ll keep a close eye on the use of geckos and their potential healing powers on paralysis.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego spinal cord injury attorney.

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Now, according to ESPN, the former NBA star isn’t looking to win any championship titles or specialized awards.  Rodney Rogers wants to find a cure for his quadriplegia and be able to walk again on his own two feet.  He is done living with paralysis and wants leave wheelchair for good.

Ex-NBA star, Rodney Rogers, sustained a spinal cord injury in a 2008 dirt bike accident.

Rogers cannot get around by himself any more.  He is confined to a motorized wheelchair or a bed for most of the day, relying on others  – like his fiancée, Faye, and a team of nurses — to feed, cloth, and bathe him.  Being a quadriplegic is hard for anyone, but especially for Rogers, who is a big man with an even bigger dream: one day walking again.

“I hope and pray that in the near future, I’ll get my arms back, and then hopefully my legs,” said Rogers. “If I had to walk with a cane or something, that’d be fine.  I just want to be able to walk again.”

In November of 2008, Rogers was riding his dirt bike along a rural road when he was thrown over the handlebars of his bike as it hit a ditch.  Being a veteran rider, Rogers was wearing protective motorcycle body armor, including a helmet and shoulder pads, everything except a neck brace.  He miss judged his fall and landed on his neck, suffering a severe spinal cord injury in the process.

He underwent a spinal fusion on his C3 and C4 vertebrae the day after the accident.  Doctors said that the diagnosis for the spinal cord injury was not good.  Rogers kept going into shock from the pain and suffering his was experiencing, prompting doctors to give him a 50-percent chance of surviving.

But Rogers did survive; pretty well in fact.

Since the accident Rogers has been adjusting to his new physical condition every day.  He attends physical therapy twice a week where trainers put him through a regiment of electric-stimulation treatments and fitness exercises in an attempt to recharge his muscles.  Though he has not seen much improvement, Rogers remains dedicated to his mission of walking once again.

To learn more about Rogers and to help those with a physical condition similar to his, visit The Rodney Rogers Foundation and discover ways you can play a part in finding a cure for paralysis.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced spinal cord injury attorney in San Diego.

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James Osborne of Seattle, Washington is suing the sporting goods company REI for damages related to a spinal cord injury caused by a faulty bike the store sold him, according the Courthouse News Service.  Osborne’s complaint also names Fairly Bike Manufacturing Co., Gruppo S.p.A., Mavic SAS and Fung Tien Electric Co. for being at-fault.

Seattle man files paralysis lawsuit against REI for a bike that fell apart.

Did a 2006 Novara Team Trionfo fall apart and cause a spinal cord injury? (Source: Bike Rumors)

Osborne states in his lawsuit that the 2006 Novara Team Trionfo he purchased from REI “broke apart underneath him” in three places along the aluminum-carbon frame causing permanent spinal cord injuries.

According to records from the King County Court, Osborne went to REI and had the bike serviced 2 months before the paralyzing accident occurred.  The lawsuit seeks to collect general and special damages for Osborne and his family, claiming he was subjected to breach of warranty and product liability with the faulty bike.

“Defendant REI could have had the 2006 ‘Novara Team Trionfo’ bicycles assembled with stronger, more elastic, resilient and shock absorbing, and fatigue resistant main triangle frame top and down tubes by changing the contractual specifications with the manufacturer,” the complaint reads.

Biking already poses the risk of paralysis — whether biking on a mountain or on the street — but the threat of a spinal cord injury greatly increases when a bike is not properly manufactured.

If you have any doubts about the safety of your bike or the bicycles that your family rides, it never hurts to take it around to different shops and get a second, third, or even fourth opinion.  Who knows?  It might be the move the helps you avoid a spinal cord injury this summer.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego paralysis lawyer.

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For Keith Fern, it is a dream come true.  After seven years of being paralyzed, Fern now uses the Bioness L300 to augment his spinal cord injury and walk, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Paraplegic man walks on his own thanks to the Bioness L300.

Keith Fern, 49, can walk again using the Bioness L300 after a car accident paralyzed him in 2003. (Source: The Sun Sentinel)

In August of 2003, 49-year-old Fern flipped his Land Cruiser and come close to severing his spinal cord.  Instead, the car accident only partially severed his C5 vertebrae, and doctors initially diagnosed his spinal cord injury as quadriplegia.  Fern had to stay in bed for four months at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center before getting transferred to rehab facility in Miami.

Eventually, through home occupational and physical therapy, Fern’s condition improved and was re-diagnosed with paraplegia because he could feel his arms and legs again.  He started walking with the assistance of weights and in 2008 — nearly 5 years after the accident — a therapist suggested he try the Bioness (NESS) L300.

Using functional electrical stimulation to send nerve signals to Fern’s left foot, the Bioness L300 has allowed Fern to walk again.  The device is designed to counteract what’s known as “foot drop”, by jump starting nerves much like jumper cables start a car battery.  Fern wears a knee brace and let’s the L300 stimulate his right foot with electricity running through his calf, pushing his right leg forward while he braces himself on his left leg.

“I can stand up and walk around, but I can only do it at one mile an hour and not for very long.  Up and down the block, to the movie theater, up the street to my bank.  But harder things like dressing and showering I do sitting down,” said Fern.

After seven long years of spinal cord injury treatments, grueling physical therapy, and exercises, once very difficult acts have become routine again.  Tying his shoes, getting dishes from the kitchen and dressing himself are all things Fern can do on his own thanks to the L300.

But he’s not keeping his success to himself.  Fern is using his story of hope and recovery to help inspire others.  He’s already set up an auction of sports memorabilia where all the proceeds will go towards finding a cure for paralysis with the help of the nonprofit research center Fern was treated at: The Miami Project.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego spinal cord injury lawyer.

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Jimmy Button knows those dangers of spinal cord injuries when it comes to motorcycling, which is why he’s trying to raise money for a cure and awareness so that motorcycle accident spinal cord injuries can be avoided in the future.

Button will go 2,428 miles from San Diego to Daytona Beach to fund a cure for spinal cord injuries.

In 2000:  While at the San Diego Supercross, Button was practicing for a race when he was in a motorcycle accident that left him with a major spinal cord injury.  Button was luckily able to recover from his injuries thanks to the support of his friends, family and physicians, but he knows he is one of the lucky ones.

In 2011:  The former motocross champion and his trainer, Cory Worf, will be biking 2,428 miles from San Diego, California to Daytona Beach, Florida.  In honor of his 10 year anniversary since the accident, Button and Worf will be riding to raise awareness for paralysis research, as well as develop a cure for severe spinal cord injuries.

This trip is called “Miles for Miracles” or “M4M” and the goal is to bring awareness and hope to those who are not as lucky as Button to recover from their spinal cord injuries.  M4M is aiming to raise $1 Million to be donated to Dr. Hans Keirstead, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurology at University of California-Irvine Reeves Irvine Research Center in Irvine, California.

How can you help Button’s team raise money for spinal cord injury treatments?  You can:

1. Pledge $0.01 per mile or $23.34 per person.
2. Give $5.00 by sending a text message BIKE to 85944.  You’ll also have the opportunity to win a 450cc San Manuel Yamaha replica.
3. Donate any amount you feel comfortable with by visiting Miles for Miracles Today.

You can follow Button’s journey on Twitter and Facebook and our firm will be tracking his progress every step of the way.  Good luck, Jimmy!

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a FREE consultation with an experienced spinal cord injury lawyers.

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But our paralysis attorneys in San Diego want to know how expensive would these treatments be in real life?  NPR and author Andrew Holtz sought out to answer: “What is the average cost in medical bills if your doctor was Dr. Gregory House? Specifically, spinal cord injury treatments.

How much would your medical bills be if you were treated by TV’s Dr. House?

How much would your medical bill be if Dr. House treated your spinal cord injury? (Source: NPR)

We ask these questions, because we know that when you experience a spinal cord injury, costs can be astronomical.  Medical bills can pile up from trips to the doctor, physical therapy, and life-long care that is given once you leave the hospital.

On top of all of that, your cost of living once you become paralyzed greatly increases.  Imagine if you damaged your spinal cord in a strange fashion and they called in Dr. House to treat you.

Here’s a bare bones breakdown on what your bill might look like, assuming the most expensive techniques are employed by House:

• $2,000 for magnetic resonating image (MRI) scan.
• $800 for computer axial tomography (CT) scan.
• $50,000 for a spinal fusion procedure.
• $140,000 for 15-day hospital stay in acute care units immediately following your spinal cord injury and 44-day rehabilitation stay.

Total ballpark cost of your medical bill:  $192,800 and that’s included in the average lifetime costs for those who injure their spinal cords after the age of 25 ($428,000 for paraplegics, $1.35 million for quadriplegics).

What about insurance?  Does that cover a portion of your tab?  Those living with paralysis and have private health care coverage at the time of their spinal cord injury usually get 52 percent of their medical bills covered, but even with that coverage your cost for the House visit is around the $92, 544 range.  That’s a lot of money for anybody!

Hopefully you’ll only need to see House on the television and not in real life, but if you should find yourself with a spinal cord injury that was caused by someone else and in need of financial assistance, our San Diego firm is here to help.

Contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following a spinal cord injury at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced paralysis attorney in San Diego.

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